The sealed box from Helen Cole, like a sleeping bomb, was sitting atop the heavy oak desk in the private study. Elias had been dodging the act of opening it completely till today, but given the chaos of the last few days; the confrontation at the dock, the assault on Victor's place, the partial betrayal of Grace, the moment had arrived. The first rays of the sun penetrated the tall windows of the Cole House as he once again raised the lid, with Sera silently standing next to him.The contents were folders that had been kept in perfect order, encrypted drives, and lastly, a letter in her own handwriting from his biological mother. Elias took the words in one by one, with his penetrating dark eyes. Helen was aware of the risks. She was setting the stage for an inside betrayal. And one name, again underlined in her beautiful handwriting: Reid.Secondly, a note had been left by Grace little information leaks over the years, not motivated by evil but by tiredness and resentment. Just en

The operation targeting Marco Vale and Frank Holt's meeting was scheduled for the next night in a neutral warehouse district controlled by one of Pascal's shell companies.Elias was going over the final plans in the war room at Cole Tower with Sera, Marcus, Solomon, and a highly vetted team. The atmosphere was heavy with tension and the faint smell of strong coffee."This is more than just causing chaos," Elias continued in a soft voice that still had the trained authority of a man who had been waiting thirty-two years. "We are sending a message. Vale and Holt must realize that the alliance is not only real, but also unbreakable."Sera was right next to him, her reddish hair tied back into a simple ponytail, her green eyes full of determination. She had on tactical gear which was a perfect fit for her character and her role. "My team will take care of the eastern perimeter. That's where Vale's lieutenant will be. We should take him alive, if possible. One piece of information is wor

The new secure server room beneath Cole House was filled with the noise of cooling fans and a general sense of tension. Elias was standing by the main console. His side was still bandaged from the warehouse raid, and Sera was close to him. The complete contents of the Cole Files transferred from the mobile drive were continuously loading on three huge screens. "Open it," Elias whispered. Before typing the master decryption key, Solomon paused for a moment. Then the files came up on the screens: ledgers spanning decades, wire transfer records, video confessions, and scanned documents. The information they uncovered was a shock. It turned out that Frank Holt was not just drawing off money from Cole Continental Holdings. He had ordered the car bomb that killed Edmund Cole. There were irrefutable proofbank payments made to the bomber, encrypted communications, and a recorded conversation of Holt boasting about it to a now-deceased associate. The date aligned perfectly: two mon

After several days, Elias was able to spend a morning outside of Cole Tower.Ignoring Marcus's warnings, he drove himself in a low-key black sedan to the campus of the old state university, where he had studied Economics and the degree used to gather dust in a drawer. Under the late morning sun, the quad was quiet, only a few students hurried between their classes. He strolled the same paths that he had used to take as a man with big dreams but invisible, now dressed in a simple dark jacket instead of a facilities uniform.He made a stop at the bench next to the economics building where he had been eating cheaply and alone all this time. He was burdened not only by the last couple of weeks but also by the quiet sense of a triumph. He dialed Cora after he had taken out his phone.Cora answered, and he said, "I am at the university. Maybe Mama would like to see it again. The place where I actually finished something before everything went dark."Cora's voice grew more cheerful. "She's

Elias held Sera tightly by the hips as he pressed her body against the glass window of the master bedroom. Below them, a dazzling city extended twenty stories down like a playground for kings and assassins. Their breathing was uneven, their clothes half-thrown lying on the floor. Their skin gleamed with perspiration despite the air conditioning."You fight the way you fuck" Sera, while exchanging kisses with him, said while gasping. She was scratching his bandaged shoulder so hard that he was forced to make a sound of pain. "No mercy. All control until you don't."Elias made a low sound. He raised her without effort and brought her to the huge bed. He had endured years of humiliation suddenly revealed a great deal of rawness. Both of them released the built-up tension of several weeks. Besides, they had on their minds the adrenaline from their raids and the gradual transformation of their mutual respect into something more intense and more hungry. Sera responded with a deep backb